Friday, October 23, 2015

Zuise Pilgrimage: Tracing Our Roots

This June, Nyoze Kwong traveled to Japan to complete the final phase of his Dharma Transmission Ceremony. Accompanying Nyoze on this two-week trip were Kwong-roshi, Kashin, and Ejo as well as our three teachers from the international sanghas: Uji Mikolaj Markiewicz representing the Kannon Sangha in Poland and Kimyo Helga Joachimsdottir along with Zenki Astvauldur Traustasson from the Natthagi Zen Center in Iceland. The primary focus of the trip was for Nyoze to complete his Zuise Transmission Ceremony which consisted of serving as abbot for one day and one night at both of the two main Soto Zen Headquarter Training Temples – Eihei-ji and Soji-ji. The trip turned out to include much more than visits to these temples however. Exploring the roots of our practice lineage, they were also able to visit Suzuki-roshi's home temple, Rinso-in, in Yaizu, and trace Suzuki-roshi's childhood footsteps at Zoun-in, Kaisuisai, training monastery and also at the great Ian Kishizawa’s temple, Gyokuden-in. During the trip they were fortunate to meet with the renowned teacher Shundo Aoyama-roshi of Aichi Senmon Nisodo - the most well-known, advanced training nunnery in Japan.

We offer our congratulations to Nyoze for making this historic journey which enabled him to complete his Zuise Ceremony, accrediting his training at Eihei-ji and deepening his connection with our lineage. In the upcoming, January issue of Mountain Wind we will feature more details of his ceremony and the group's many experiences during their time in Japan.

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Sonoma Mountain Zen Center is a small residential Buddhist community practicing in the Soto Zen tradition of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi. We are located on 81 acres on rural Sonoma Mountain in Northern California. Our resident teacher is Jakusho Kwong-roshi, dharma successor in Suzuki-roshi’s lineage.

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